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A Study of Minnesota 

For Use in the Fourth Grade 



AND 



An Amplified Outline for 
the Study of Minnesota 

in the Sixth Grade 



ANTOINETTE E. FORD 



ST. PAUL GRADE TEACHERS' FEDERATION 



A Study of Minnesota 

For Use in the Fourth Grade 



AN L) 



An Amplified Outline for 
the Study of Minnesota 

in the Sixth Grade 



ANTOINETTE E. FORD 



ST. PAUL GRADE TEACHERS' FEDERATION 



Copyright 1915 

By 

Antoinette E. Ford 






PREFACE 



The chief object of this paj^er is to fui-iiish authentic infoi-ina- 
tion which -will be useful to teachers, ])rol)ably of the Fourtli 
Grade, who take up the early history of ^Minnesota and the geo- 
graphy of the state in simple form. The facts have been gleaned 
from many sources. It is the hope of the writer that the material 
furnished may be helpful to those taking up this work for the 
first time. The effort has been to supply historical and geographi- 
cal material which can be presented to children, rather than to 
enter exhaustively into the history and geography of the state. 
It is hoped that the many hours spent in compiling the facts given 
here, will lighten the labors of other teachers. 

ANTOINETTE E. FORD. 
St. Paul, JMinn., January, 1915. 




MAR -8 1916 
OCU396218 

2lo f 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Folwell's History of Minnesota 
Neill's History of Minnesota 

St. Paul and Vicinity - - Castle 

St Paul Past and Present ------- Bliss 

Type Studies ------ - - McMnrry 

Pioneer History Stories ------ McMurry 

Minnesota Supplement to Dodge Geography - Lehnerts and Hall 
Minnesota Supplement to Tarr-McMurry Geography - Denfeld 

Pathfinders of the West A. C. Laut 

Minnesota Historical Society Collections 

Ancestry, Life and Times of H. H. Sibley - - - West 

Minnesota in Three Centuries - - - Warren Upham 

History of Dakota and Goodhue Counties. 

Old Rail Fence Corners, The A. B. C.'s of Minnesota History. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

The French in Minnesota 
Radisson 
Duluth 
Father Hennepin 

Discovery of St. Anthony Falls 
Change from French to English Control 
Jonathan Carver 

Indian Mounds and Carver's Cave 
Change from English to United States Control 
Zebulon Pike 

Search for the Source of the Mississippi 

Founding of Fort Snelling. The Round Tower 
First White Child Born in Minnesota 
First Saw Mill in Minnesota and First Flour Mill 
First Custom Mill 



First Steamboat and Steamboating on the Mississippi 

Minnehaha Falls 

Founding of Mendota 

Discovery of Lake Itasca by William Morrison 

Henry R. Schoolcraft and the Naming of Itasca 

Founding of St. Paul 

Early Settlers 
Father Galtier and St. Paul's Chapel 
Father Ravoux 
Naming of St. Paul 
Red River Carts 
Capital Located 

Old Capitol Building 
First Bridge across the Mississippi 
Alexander Ramsey 
First Minnesota Regiment 
Henry H. Sibley 

Sibley House at Mendota 
Sioux Massacre 

Little Crow and Fort Ridgely 
Size of Minnesota and Number of Counties 

Central Location and River Systems 
Territory Organized and Admission as a State 
Lake Superior 
Duluth 
Iron Mines 

The Hull-Rust Mine 
Trip down the Mississippi from St. Paul 

Red Wing 

Lake Pepin 

Legend of Maiden Rock 

Formation of Lake Pepin 

Wabasha 

Winona 



A STUDY OF MINNESOTA. 

Three hundred years ago, there were only Indians here in 
Minnesota. Less than forty years after the Pilgrims settled in 
Plymouth, the first white men came to IVIinnesota, but these were 
not Englishmen like the Pilgrims. They were Frenchmen. 
Among them were Kadisson, Father Hennepin, and Duluth. 

Radisson. i 

The first white men to tread the soil of Minnesota were two 
Frenchmen, Radisson and his brother-in-law, (Groseilliers). How- 
ever, as they left no maps, they deserve no credit as explorers. 
They were men of some education. Radisson was a good writer 
and wrote in English.' They both know much of Indian ways 
and language. They left Montreal in 1654 and spent the first 
winter on the shores of Lake Michigan. In the spring of 1655, 
they crossed Wisconsin on snowshoes and came to the Mississippi 
River. (At Prairie du Chien.) There were 150 in the party, of 
whom 148 were Indians. They spent three weeks here in making 
boats in which to go up the river. These boats were probably 
not birch canoes, for there was not much birch in this vicinity. 
They were most likely hollowed out logs. The party came up the 
river to the first inhabited island. This was Prairie Island, a 
large island between Red Wing and Hastings. (Nine miles below 
Hastings.) They spent their first year here, or near here. A 
council was held on the island by Indians from all over the state. 
At least 800 came. The two Frenchmen used all their eloquence 
to beg the Indians to make up a large company and go to ^lontreal 
with their furs. This the Indians did, at which the people of 
Montreal were overjoj^ed. During the time spent on Prairie 
Island, the Frenchmen got the Indians to raise much corn for this 
trip. 

These Frenchmen made a second trip to Minnesota, this time 
to the east central part of the state. They persuaded the Indians 
to stick to France, telling them that great benefits would come. 

(The above information was given by Warren Upham in an 
address to the Grade Teachers' Federation of St. Paul.) 



Minnesota in Three Centuries^ — Warren Upham. 
Folwell 's History of Minnesota pp. 9 to 13. 
Pathfinders of the West — A. C. Laut. 



Duluth. 



Duluth and Hennepin are great names in the history of Min- 
nesota. They came with higher motives. While others wished 
to make money on the fur trade, these men wished to establish 
the power of France as well. 

A company of Canadian merchants resolved to attempt to 
open trade about Lake Superior and chose as their agent, Daniel 
Greylosen, the Sieur Euluth. In 1679, the year before Father 
Hennepin came to Minnesota, Buluth went to the shore of Mille 
Lacs, planted the arms of the king of France and took possession. 
He was the first white man in Minnesota who was not ashamed 
to report and record the fact. He retraced his steps to Lake 
SujDcrior and on the Pigeon River built a trading post. He 
traveled with Hennepin for a while. 

Folwell 's History of ^Minnesota — pp. 16-17. 

Hennepin. 

Father Hennepin and two Frenchmen were sent out by La 
Salle, in Illinois, to explore the upper Mississippi. In 1680, in a 
bark canoe laden with their arms, personal belongings, and some 
packs of merchandise which served for money with the Indians, 
the party set out. Among the things which these men carried 
were tobacco, beads, ten knives, twelve awls or bodkins, and a 
package of needles. They went down the Illinois and began their 
toilsome way up the Mississippi, against the current. 

They met an Indian war party of thirty-three canoes near 
the mouth of the Wisconsin River. The Indians began to shoot 
arrows, but on seeing a peace-pipe (which La Salle had given the 
explorers when they left him) held out, they stopped and ap- 
proached. Some wished to scalp the white men. However, the 
Indians did not do this, but kept them as prisoners. 



After nineteen days, the pai'ty landed in a bay, believed to 
be the mouth of Phalen's Creek at St. Paul. So these Frenchmen 
were the first white men to visit the neighborhood of St. Paul and 
Minneapolis. The Indians broke Hennepin's canoe to pieces and 
hid their own in the weeds. They then set out overland for their 
villages on Mille Lacs, by a trail which followed the divide be- 
tween the waters of the Mississipi)i and the St. Croix. 

After some weeks, Hennepin and one of the Frenchmen were 
allowed to take a canoe to the mouth of the Wisconsin River, 
where La Salle had promised to send supplies. Going down the 
Mississippi, they soon reached the falls first seen by white men 
and named St. Anthony by Father Hennepin, from his patron 
saint. (July, 1680 — Neill's History of Minnesota.) He described 
the falls quite accurately, but greatly exaggerated their height. 
He said that the falls were ''forty or fifty feet high," while they 
are really under twenty feet in height. 

As Hennei)in was passing the falls, he saw an Indian in a 
tree on the opposite side, weeping bitterly. He was making an 
offering of a beautiful beaver robe trimmed with porcupine quills 
and thus spoke to the falls: ''Thou who art a spirit, grant that 
our nation may pass here quietly without accident, may kill buf- 
falo in abundance, conquer our enemies, and bring in slaves, some 
of whom we will put to death before thee : the IMessenecqz (Fox 
Indians) have killed our kindred, grant that we may avenge them. 

Below the Falls of St. Anthony, Hennepin met Duluth and 
four other Frenchmen. It Avas a happy meeting for both parties, 
and they all returned together to the villages about Mille Lacs. 
The Indians not only treated Hennepin better than before, but 
gave Duluth and Hennepin a great feast. 

In the fall the eight white men set out together on their 
return to Canada. As they passed the Falls of St. Anthony, two 
of the men stole two buffalo robes which were hung on trees as 
offerings. When Duluth heard of it he was very angry and told 
the men that they had endangered the lives of the whole party. 
However, the men insisted on keeping the robes and fortunately 
the Indians never troubled the white men in regard to them. 



Hennepin returned to France in 1682 and wrote an interest- 
ing book about his discoveries. He also made a sketch of the 
Falls of St. Anthony. 

Folwell's and Neill's Histories. 
Note. 

Father Hennepin was born in the Netherlands, but he spoke 
French and worked for France. Unless the question of his nation- 
ality is raised by the class, I should let Fourth Grade children 
think of him as a Frenchman. 

Chang-e from French to English Control, 

Jonathan Carver, 

On receiving the great Northwest Territory from France in 
1768, the British Government sent Jonathan Carver to explore 
and report upon the region. In 1766, Carver ascended the Missis- 
sippi River. He stopped at a cave in the white sandstone nearly 
beneath the Indian Mounds in St. Paul, since called Carver's Cave. 
The Indians held councils here and called it the "Dwelling of the 
Great Spirit." 

Carver visited the Falls of St. Anthony and said of the land- 
scape near, "On the w^hole when the Falls are included a more 
pleasing and picturesque view, I believe cannot be found through- 
out the universe." He went up the Minnesota River (about 200 
miles) and wintered with the Sioux. In the spring he came down 
to St, Paul with the Indians bringing their dead to be deposited 
in the Indian Mounds, They did this annually. 

There used to be 12,000 mounds in Minnesota. Thirtj^-two 
were in St. Paul, but only seven are now left. The Sioux built 
these and there is not a better group in Minnesota, They were 
made as burial places and when the Indians made their yearly 
trip to them, they used to hold a council in Carver's Cave, 

At the council. Carver claims to have been adopted by the 
Indians as a chief of the tribe. He claims also to have made a 
treaty with the Indians, by which he received a deed of land from 
St. Anthony Falls to Lake Pepin. 



St. Paul and Vicinity — Castle, p. 17. 

Carver describes tlie cave as, "A remarkable cav€ of amazing 
depth. The arch within is fifteen feet high and about thirty feet 
broad. The bottom consists of fine clear sand. About thirty feet 
from the entrance begins a lake, the water of which is transpar- 
ent, and extends to an unsearchable distance, for the darkness 
of the cave prevents all attempts to acquire a knowledge of it," 
etc. 

Neill's History p. 207. 

Change from English to United States Control. 

Zebulon Pike. 

In 1805, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike was appointed to find the 
source of the Mississippi. Although twenty years after the Revo- 
lation, Pik« found English trading posts along the Mississippi. 
He was to secure a site for a fort to strengthen the hold of the 
United States on this frontier. On September 21st, the United 
States flag appeared, for the first time in ^linnesota. on an island 
at the mouth of the Minnesota River, (then called St. Peter's 
River) now named Pike's Island. 

The next day an Indian chief and 150 warriors appeared. 
Pike held a council with them under a bower of sails. After the 
council he gave the Indians presents, and then an agreement was 
signed granting to the United States, land extending up both sides 
of the Mississippi and including the Falls of St. Anthony and 
another longer tract at the mouth of the St. Croix River. In his 
speech, Pike let the Indians know that their Great Father no 
longer lived beyond the great salt water. On these tracts. Pike 
said, the Great Father (President of the United States) would 
establish military posts and public trading factories where the 
Indians could get goods cheaper than from the traders. 

Pike spent five days at the Falls of St. Anthony. He meas- 
ured the falls and found them sixteen and a half feet in height. 
He also made a map. (Folwell's History pp. 48-49.) 



Pike started np the river and finally reached Leech Lake, in 
February, 1806. He went on snowshoes to Cass Lake, then called 
upper Red Cedar Lake. He thought that he had reached the 
source of the Mississippi. He ordered the British flag down in this 
neighborhood. 

On his return he passed the Falls of St. Anthony on April 
tenth and said of them, that they were "much more tremendous" 
than when he ascended. lee was floating here all day. 

Pike told proudly that he had not lost one man. (St. Paul & 
Vicinity— Castle, p. 22.) 

Founding of Fort Snelling. 

In 1819, the government established a military post at Fort 
Snelling. The troops arrived at Mendota, August 24th, and were 
at once put to building log houses on the site of the present ferry 
and the town of Mendota. Jn September, 120 men arrived as rein- 
forcements. The land on the ]Mendota side was too low to escape 
the spring floods, so the next spring all went into camp above the 
site of the present fort. It was called Camp Cold water. In July, 
Col. Joseph Snelling arrived. He at once began a fort. The 
cornerstone of the stone fort was laid on September 10, 1820. A 
wooden structure was also ])eguu. Col. Snelling named the fort. 
Fort St. Anthony. In 1824, Gen. Winfield Scott had the name 
changed to Fort Snelling. 

The Round Tower. 

"The Round Tower built in 1820 is the most precious building 
in the Northwest. There is nothing of similar rareness in a sim- 
ilar state of preservation in all the Northwest. At other historic 
spots nothing is left but scant remnants of foundations. Nothing 
of the dignity and perfection of this Round Tower. It is the sole 
sentinel, the only relic of the old Northwest which back in 1819 
stretched vaguely to the Rockies and the Pacific." 

Castle — St. Paul and Vicinity, p. 377. 



First White Child Born in Minnesota. 

A few days after the arrival of Colonel and Mrs. Snelling 
(July, 1820) at the post opposite Mendota, called Camp Cold- 
water, a baby daughter was born. This was the first child born 
of white parents in ]\Iinnesota. After a short life of thirteen 
months, she died. A weather-beaten monument marked the grave 
of the little one in the graveyard of Fort Snelling for many years. 
As none of these graves has been removed, it is probably there 
now. 

First Saw-mill in Minnesota. 

In the autumn of 1821, a rude saw-mill was built at the Falls 
of St. Anthony. The first logs were cut on the Kum River and 
used in the making of the fort. This saw-mill was built under the 
supervision of officers from the fort and was guarded by a sergeant 
and a few privates. It was located on the site of Minneapolis. 
Two years later a "run of buhrs" was put in, and the first flour 
mill established. At first this mill ground corn only. (Neill's 
History, p. 327. FolwelTs History, p. 156.) 

First Custom Mill. 

The first custom mill was built by Lemuel Bolles in 1841, at 
Bolles' Creek, in Washington Count}', a mile above Afton and near 
St. Croix. Corn only was ground for some years, then wheat. 
Unable to obtain bolting cloth, Bolles used his wife's silk dress in 
bolting the flour. 

The First Steamboat. 

The first steamboat to ascend to the fort at the mouth of the 
Minnesota River was named the Virginia. It brought supplies to 
the fort. The boat was 100 feet in length, 22 feet in width, and 
drew six feet of water. It had been built at Pittsburgh and was 
commanded by Capt. Crawford. It reached the fort on the tenth 
of May, 1823. The savages, who called it a "fire-boat," looked 
upon it with speechless wonder, supposing it was some gigantic 
water-spirit, coughing and puffing out hot breath and smoke. As 
it began to discharge steam, mothers forgot their children and 



with streaming hair, sought hiding places. Warriors, contrary to 
their usual stoical habits, scampered away like frightened deer. 

St. Paul & Vicinity, Castle, p. 27. 

Folwell's History, p. 73. Neill's History, p. 336. 

Steamboating on the Mississippi. 

Prom 1850 to 1858, the arrival of steamboats at St. Paul con- 
stantly increased. Often several hundred settlers came on one 
boat. The climax of steamboating on the river was in 1858. In 
this year 1,068 steamboats came to St. Paul. (St. Paul and Vicin- 
ity, Castle, p. 213.) 

Minnehaha Falls. 

In reading the early history of Minnesota, one finds references 
every now and then to the beautiful Falls of Minnehaha. One 
reads of the officers in the early days at Fort Snelling visiting 
Minnehaha Falls. One early settler speaks of visiting the Falls 
in 1842 and finding "deer and game of all kinds bountiful" about 
there. (Old Rail Fence Corners, p. 11.) 

These Falls have been made famous by the poet, Longfellow. 
No other fall has ever been so celebrated in song and story. The 
Falls are about forty feet high. Below them, the creek flows 
thru a deep glen for half a mile to the Mississippi. 

Mendota. 

The first collection of people in Minnesota, aside from the 
garrison of Fort Snelling, was the little village of Mendota, in- 
habited by French half-breeds and their Indian wives and chil- 
dren. At times its numbers were increased by traders from out- 
posts, coming in to headquarters to bring their furs and obtain 
supplies. Mendota is a French village today. 

Folwell's History, p. 81. 

Traders were at ^lendota as early as 1779, but there is no abso- 
lute certainty as to who made the first habitation. It is believed 
to have been a half-breed Sioux (by the name of Duncan Camp- 



bell) who located at Mendota in 1826. Faribault erected his 
dwelliiiii' here in 1826. The American Fur Company selected 
^lendota as the best location for their main depot of trade with 
the Sionx. During the busy season large numbers of traders, 
clerks, voyageurs, and Indians gathered here. 

The place was called St. Peter's, until about 1837, when the 
name of Mendota (a Sioux word meaning the ''meeting of 
waters") was substituted. (History of Dakota and Goodhue 
Counties in ^Minnesota Historical Society Library.) 

Discovery of Lake Itasca. 

To William Morrison the honor of discovering the true source 
of the Mississippi is due. The annals of the Minnesota Historical 
Society for 1856 quote the following letter written by William 
Morrison, an old trader, to his brother : 

"Dear Brother : — In answering your favor of the tenth of 
January, I will * * * give you the time and circum- 
stances that led me to be the first white man that discov- 
ered the source of the great ^Mississippi River. I left * * * 
the north shore of Lake Superior * * * in the year 1802 
and landed at Leech Lake in September or October, the same 
year. I wintered on one of the streams of the Crow Wing, 
near its source. * * * in 1803 and 1804, I went and win- 
tered at Rice Lake. I passed by Red Cedar Lake, now called 
Cass Lake, followed up the Mississippi to Cross Lake, and 
then up the IMississippi again to Elk Lake, now called Itasca 
Lake, the source of the great river, Mississippi. * * * I 
discovered no traces of any white man before me, when I 
visited Itasca Lake in 1804, and if the late General Pike did 
not lay it down as such, when he came to Leech Lake, it is 
because he did not happen to meet me. I was at an outpost 
that winter. The late General Pike laid down Cass Lake on 
his map as the head of the Mississippi River. * * * Gen- 
eral Pike * * * went to Cass Lake and could proceed no 
further. He had been told that I knew the source, but could 
not see me. I being at an outpost. This want of information 



made him commit the error ; some person, not knowing better, 
told him there was no river above Cass Lake. Cass Lake 
receives the waters of Cross Lake and Cross Lake those of 
Itasca Lake and five small streams that empty into Itasca 
Lake, then called Elk Lake. * * * No white man can 
claim the discovery of the source of the Mississippi before me 
for I was the first that saw and examined its shores." 

It will be noticed that Morrison claims to have made his dis- 
covery in 1801, while Pike's expedition to the supposed source of 
the Mississippi was in February, 1806. 

Henry R. Schoolcraft. 

Some accounts make no mention of Morrison and give School- 
craft as the discoverer of the source of the Mississippi. Henry R. 
Schoolcraft was sent out by the government in 1832 to look after 
the Indian trade. He had been with an exploring party (under 
Cass in 1820) which had presumably reached the source of the 
Mississippi River. Schoolcraft had doubted if Cass Lake (pre- 
viously called upper Red Cedar Lake) w^as the true source. If 
not, Schoolcraft was anxious to find it. He pushed beyond Cass 
Lake and came to the lake now called Itasca. He asked a mis- 
sionary in the party for the Latin for "true source." The mis- 
sionary could only remember that the Latin for truth was 
"Veritas" and for head "caput." He wrote these two words on a 
slip of paper and Schoolcraft cut off the beginning of one word 
and the end of the other, thus making "Itasca," which many think 
to be a beautiful Indian name. Schoolcraft erected a flag staff and 
flew the American flag on an island in Itasca which still bears his 
name. (Folwell's History, pp. 71-76.) 

Founding of St. Paul. 

In 1838, Pierre Parrant. a French-Canadian, who had settlnd 
under the walls of Fort Snelling, moved down the river a few 
miles. He built a log cabin on the site of St. Paul and established 
a little trading station (mostlj^ a saloon). His little hut (near the 
City Hospital) was really the beginning of St. Paul. Gradually a 



little cluster of cabins greAv up under the edge of the bluff, the 
settlers being almost entirely French-Canadians. Abraham Perry 
settled near and raised cattle. In July, Benjamin and Pierre 
Gervais settled here and Edward Phelan and John Hays selected 
claims. 

In 1840, Father Lucian Galtier, of the Catholic church, was 
sent into the upper waters of the Mississippi. The next year, a 
small piece of land, enough for a church, a garden, and a small 
graveyard, was given the priest by Benjamin Gervais and Vetal 
Guerin. On this land, which was near Third and Jackson streets, 
a log chapel was built. On November 1, 1841, this little chapel, 
erected by the hands of settlers, was completed and was solemnly 
dedicated to "Saint Paul, the Apostle of the Nations." 

This rude structure, 25 feet by 18 feet ("St. Paul, Past and 
Present" by Bliss says 15 feet by 12 feet), was built by eight 
farmer parishioners. The walls were of rough, undressed oak 
logs, prepared merely by the ax and secured by wooden pins. The 
rafters were tamarack poles cut from a swamp at St. Peter and 
Sixth streets and the roof was made of pine slabs from the saw- 
mills of Stillwater. This chapel was later enlarged. 

St. Paul and Vicinity, Castle, p. 515. 
^Minnesota Historical Society Collections, Vol. X. 

Father Ravoux. 

In the fall of 1841, Rev. Augustin Ravoux arrived in St. Paul. 
In 1844, he succeeded Father Galtier and spent his long life in St. 
Paul or its vicinity. (Died in 1904.) The bell of the steamer 
Argo, sunk in the Mississippi in the autumn of 1847, was presented 
to Father Ravoux by H. j\I. Rice. It was installed in a little belfry 
beside St. Paul's chapel in the winter of '47- '48. This was the 
first mounted bell dedicated to the use of any church or school in 
Minnesota. 

Naming of St. Paul. 

From the dedication of the chapel, mentioned above, to St. 
Paul, the village was called St. Paul's Landing, then Saint Paul's, 



and finally just St. Paul. The Indians called it "In-ni-ja-ska" 
(white rock) from the white sandstone bluffs. This sandstone 
holds well and in it caves have now been made by man. In these 
caves, 300,000 pounds of mushrooms are raised annually. This is 
the greatest enterprise of its kind in the United States. 

Pembina or Red River Carts. 

St. Paul for many years in its early history was a place for the 
white settlers and traders to meet the Indians. The Red River 
(or Pembina) carts brought furs to St. Paul from the Red River 
colony and returned laden with merchandise. This was an im- 
portant source of gain to the city. The first Red River carts came 
to Mendota in 1844, but in 1847, as many as 127 carts made the 
trip to St. Paul. These- carts were made entirely of wood, fast- 
ened with leather and they had only two wheels. At first the 
wheels were cut from a single round of a tree, altho later on 
spokes were used. The rims of the wheels were eight inches wide. 
It was the width of the wheel and the sagacity of the animals 
drawing the cart that made it possible to go with security over 
most impossible roads. These solid wheels were fixed on wooden 
axles on which no oil or grease was used. When in motion, a 
caravan could be heard for three miles. For this reason the carts 
were called the "Red River Band." In the book entitled "Old 
Rail Fence Comers," it speaks of a minister of St. Anthony (now 
Minneapolis) who had just given out his text when the squeaking 
of the Red River carts was heard. He hastily said, "To be dis- 
coursed on next Sunday," and closed the service, for nothing but 
this noise could be heard when the carts were passing. 

Oxen fastened by means of thongs of buft'alo hide usually 
pulled the carts. Sometimes tame buffalo were used. One driver 
had charge of several carts, simply guiding the head ox. The 
drivers, usually French half-breeds, dressed in buckskin with 
bright sashes. 

These carts cost about fifteen dollars each. They would carry 
600 to 700 pounds and generally lasted three trips. The nearest 
route to St. Paul was 448 miles and these cart trains made the 
journey in thirty or forty days. The trains usually started as 



soon as pasturage could be obtained for the oxen. Sometimes a 
hundred carts would pass thru a place at one time. When the 
carts reached St. Paul, they camped where Larpenteur's home 
now is. (Rondo and Dale.) 

In 1858, six hundred Red River carts came to St. Paul, but 
when the railroads came, the carts passed away before the 
progress of civilization. 

St. Paul in early days became one of the greatest fur markets 
in the United States, and is now one of the gre^^test centers for 
fur manufacturing in America. 

St. Paul and Vicinity, Castle. 

Old Rail Fence Corners, pp. 11-29-43-62-67-105-115. 

Capital Located, 

The capital was permanently located in St. Paul in 1851, two 
years after the territory of Minnesota was organized (1849). At 
the same time, the State Prison was given to Stillwater and the 
University to St. Anthony (Minneapolis). The old capitol was 
erected in 1853. 

It is interesting to note that the two houses of the legislature 
meeting in this building adjourned one day in January, 1855, to 
attend the exercises at the opening of the first bridge of any kind 
over the Mississippi ever completed from Lake Itasca to the Gulf 
of Mexico. This was a wire suspension bridge in Minneapolis. It 
has since been removed. 

The old capitol was burned, March, 1881, The senate was in 
session at the time and the senators narrowly escaped, the ceiling 
falling just as the last of them reached the street. 

Note. 

Accounts of the present industries and places of interest in 
Minneapolis and St. Paul have not l)een given in this paper. As 
these are not difficult to find, they have been omitted. However, 
the following references might prove useful. 



McMurry's Type Studies, p. 154. 

Story of a Pine Board, St. Nicholas, November, 1897. 
Lumbering and Saw Mills. 

The Story of a Grain of Wheat, St. Nicholas, October, 
1893. Wheat Farms and Flour Mills. 

Alexander Ramsey. 

Jn March, 1849, President Taylor selected Alexander Ramsey, 
who had been a member of congress from Pennsylvania, as first 
governor of the territory of Minnesota. In a stage coach, he rode 
from ^Milwaukee to Prairie du Chien and there took the steamboat, 
"Dr. Franklin." On May 27th, the boat reached St. Paul, but as 
no suitable house was ready for him, Governor Ramsey accepted 
the hospitality of H. H. Sibley at Mendota. On June 25th, with 
his wife and child, he came dow^n to St. Paul in a birch canoe. 
They landed at St. Paul and proceeded to a house which the gov- 
ernor had rented, Mrs. Ramsey and her little son sitting on trunks 
in an ox wagon, and the governor on foot. 

The next day the governor secured the good will of his fel- 
low-Townsmen by subscribing five dollars for a much-needed 
public improvement, a town pump. 

St. Paul and Vicinity, Castle, p. 51. 

(Ramsey County, Ramsey Street, and the Ramsey School in 
St. Paul are all named for Gov. Ramsey.) 

First Minnesota Regiment. 

Alexander Ramsey was again chosen governor after Minne- 
sota became a state and was holding that office when the Civil 
War began. He was in Washington. April 14, 1861, when the 
occupation of Fort Sumter by the Confederates occurred. He 
hastened to the War Department and offered 1,000 Minnesota 
men. This was the first regiment offered. He telegraphed about 
it to St. Paul. Sibley had previously organized a militia in the 
state. ]\lany of the militia enlisted and on April 29th, ten 
companies, nearly full, were mustered into service at Fort Snell- 



ing. Black felt hats, black trousers, and red shirts, furnished 
by the state, constituted their uniform. This regiment, called the 
"First Minnesota," did splendid work. 

General Henry Hastings Sibley. 

Henry Hastings Sibley was the first governor of Minnesota 
after it became a state. (Inaugurated 1858.) He studied law 
at his early home in Michigan, but as a boy he wished to be a 
frontiersman. At eighteen he entered the service of the Ameri- 
can Fur Company. Later he became a partner in this company 
and was placed in control of the country about Lake Pepin ex- 
tending north to Canada. In 1834, Sibley came to Mendota 
(then called St. Peter's). There were a few log houses at St. 
Peter's, occupied by persons in the fur trade. In 1835-36, Mr. 
Sibley constructed two stone buildings, one a large warehouse 
and the other a private residence. This was the first stone resi- 
dence ever erected in all Minnesota and Dakota. The house is 
now owned and kept up by the Daughters of the American Revo- 
lution. 

For many years Sibley's only companions and associates 
were the officers at Fort Snelling, with their families, the clerks 
of the fur company, and the Indians. With the Indians he be- 
came intimately acquainted. He often visited them for months 
at a time. Sibley was so fleet and tireless on foot that the Sioux 
named him " Wah-ze-o-man-nee." (AValker in the pines.) It 
is said that he could speak the Sioux language as Avell as an 
Indian. 

His military service to the state was of great value. Sibley 
County and the city of Hastings were named for General Sibley 
and in St. Paul, Sibley street and the Sibley School bear his 
name. General Sibley died in St. Paul, Feb. 18th, 1891, lacking 
only two days of being eighty years old. 

Ancestry, Life, and Times of H. H. Sibley, West, p. 60. 
St. Paul and Vicinity, Castle, p. 1160. 
Sioux Massacre. 

The Sioux Indians, who once occupied nearly all of Minne- 



sota, had sold most of their lands to the whites and were living- 
on two reservations on the upper Minnesota River. Mission- 
aries lived among them and government agents, who tried to 
teach and civilize them. Some of the Indians had become farm- 
ers and lived in houses like the whites, but many of them were 
as wild as ever and followed the chase as of old. The United 
States Government furnished them with food and clothing, also 
money. In the summer of 1862, there was a delay m paying the 
Indians the money due them and the Indians, who at heart 
hated the whites, decided secretly to kill all the white people in 
the Minnesota valley and to drive the others across the Missis- 
sippi. The state was at this time poorly prepared for defense 
as many of her men were engaged in the Civil War. For this 
reason the Indians thought it a good time to make an attack. 

Little Crow, the most influential chief among the Sioux, 
lived in a frame house and was known as a civilized Indian. The 
government agents were assisting him in building a brick dwell- 
ing. Only three days before the beginning of the terrible In- 
dian massacre, he seemed well pleased with the progress of the 
work on his new home. White men who knew him, still praise 
his good sense and kindness of heart. He had been to Wash- 
ington and so knew the resources of the white man. For this 
reason he had always before counseled the Indians against war 
on the whites. At heart, however, he was a heathen Indian. He 
wished to show his people that he was as brave in war as he was 
eloquent in council, so he said, "Let us kill the traders and 
divide their goods." 

The Indians began their attack in the region of the upper 
Minnesota River, but being successful here, they carried their 
deadly work into the entire southwestern part of the state. It 
has been estimated that 700 whites were killed and 25,000 driven 
from their homes. The first attack was in August, 1862, about 
harvest time, and such large supplies of food were destroyed that 
thousands had to be supported by charity. 

The Indians collected in large numbers for an attack on 
Fort Ridgely. Here many people from the country around had 



gathered for protection. Many of the Indians were killed. It 
was feared b}^ all that the Indians would set on fire the dry roofs 
of the buildings at the fort with their fire arrows. Fortunately 
at midnight after the battle, the rain fell in torrents. It con- 
tinued raining all the next day. The water in the fort had given 
out and as the spring was far away, a well was dug. Men and 
women were employed in making cartridges. Barricades of cord 
wood were built and roofs covered with earth. The Indians 
returned two days after the first attack, in greatly increased 
numbers. Led by Little Crow they made a desperate attack on 
the fort. The artillery, however, was too much for them and 
after fighting from one o'clock until sundown they left with 
yells of rage and disappointment. 

Little Crow's next attack was on New Ulm. Here, too, he 
was discouraged by the fire from the barricades. 

As soon as Governor Ramsey heard of the outbreak he ap- 
pointed Colonel Sibley to organize an army and to march against 
the Indians. Colonel Sibley and his troops marched first to St. 
Peter and then to Fort Ridgely, to the joy and relief of the long 
imprisoned garrison. After drilling his men here he set out 
against the Indians. A battle was fought, but after two hours 
of fighting, the Indians retreated. Colonel Sibley followed and 
over a hundred white captives were turned over to him. 

Afterward, Col. Sibley's army surrounded the Indian camp 
and four hundred of the w^arriors were captured. Of these, 
thirty-eight were hanged at IMankato, thirty-two of whom had 
just been baptized by Father Ravoux. The prisoners who were 
not condemned v/ere marched to Fort Snelling, where they were 
kept in a guarded camp until the next May. Then they were 
sent out of the state to reservations in Dakota. 

In the summer of 1863, Little Crow and his followers re- 
newed their attacks on the western frontier, but were defeated 
in almost every encounter. On July 3, 1863. Little Crow, while 
picking berries near Hutchinson, Minnesota, was fatallj^ shot by 
a white man. 



Size of Minnesota, Etc. 

Minnesota is the thirteenth state of the Union in size. When 
the border waters, including a portion of Lal^e Superior, are 
taken in, Minnesota ranks tenth. It has eighty-six counties. It 
extends farther north than any other state in the United States. 
It is right in the heart of the continent. It lies on the crest of 
the Great Central Lowland, so that three great river systems 
have their beginning here, the Mississippi, St. Lawrence, and the 
Nelson. 

In 1849, ^linnesota was organized as a territory and Alex- 
ander Ramsey was the first territorial governor. In 1858, it was 
admitted as a state and Henry H. Sibley was the first state gov- 
ernor. 

In early days, the fur trade brought settlers to our state, in 
territorial times lumber was the attracting force, while later, 
wheat drew many settlers. 

Lake Superior. 

Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world. 
It is 380 miles long. This means that it is longer than the great- 
est width of ^Minnesota (357 miles) and it is 160 miles across at 
the widest part. Its area of 32,000 square miles is four times as 
big as Massachusetts and about the size of Indiana. The lake is 
over 1,300 feet (1,386 feet) deep in its deepest parts. Around 
the lake is a high, rocky rim, sloping steeply down to the water. 
Down this slope two hundred small rivers pour their waters into 
Lake Superior. These rivers are generally not large or smooth 
enough for boats, but they supply much waterpower. A great 
deal of this has not yet been used, but in time to come probably 
many mills will be built here. The St. Louis River, at the head 
of Lake Superior, is one of the largest of these streams. People 
who live on this river often speak of it as the beginning of the 
St. Lawrence. The falls of this river furnish much waterpower. 
This is used by saw-mills which make into lumber, logs from the 
forests of northern Minnesota. 



There are many islands in the lake, the largest of which be- 
longs to the United States. In fact the greater part of Lake 
Superior belongs to the United States, altho the northern part is 
owned by Canada. 

The fisheries of the lake are important. White fish, lake 
trout, pickerel, and sturgeon as w^ell as other kinds of fish are 
caught. The fish are caught largely in nets and these can be 
seen from the steamer's side in the clear water below. The many 
gulls on Lake Superior add to the beauty of the scene. These 
birds are really of great use, keeping the shores free from dead 
fish which might collect. 

The water is always clear and cold. It is almost ice cold in 
summer and if the fishermen fall into it they are often chilled 
and drowned before help can reach them. The lake sometimes 
freezes around the edges, but is never frozen all over. The 
water is so clear that one can see objects plainly more than 
twenty feet below the surface. It is remarkably pure and is 
good drinking water. 

The winds blowing off the great lake make the summers of 
the land touching it much cooler and the winters not so cold as 
they would otherwise be. 

Lake Superior is part of the greatest inland waterway of 
the world. Its commerce is of very great importance, due large- 
ly to the fact that freight is much cheaper by water than by rail. 
Here are great boats carrying the iron ore and wheat of Minne- 
sota to the East, while others are bringing coal from the mines 
of the eastern part of the United States to be used in Minnesota. 
ITsually Lake Superior can be navigated for eight months in the 
year, from the middle of April to the middle of December. The 
sailor's life on the lake is a hard one, for the storms are as rough 
as those upon the ocean and the fogs which may come at almost 
any time are much dreaded. Light houses have been built along 
the banks, but in the fog the lights cannot be seen. McMurry 
has said that in summer, "Dame Superior wears her fogs almost 
as a Turkisli wife wears her veils." Snow begins in September 
and it sometimes snows as late as June. 



McMurry's Type Studies — Lake Superior. 
Lake Superior — Outline for Lesson. 

Size. Compare with other lakes. 

Length. "Width. Area. 
Depth. 
Streams flowing in. 

Use. Largest. 
Islands. 
Owners. 
Fisheries. 
Gulls. 
Water. 

Coldness and clearness. 
Efifect on climate. 

Summer. 
• Winter. 
Commerce. 

Importance. 

Products shipped East and West. 
Dangers. 
Time open to navigation. 

Duluth. 

At the head of Lake Superior is Duluth, the third city of the 
state in size. The harbor of Duluth with its forty-nine miles of 
shore line and its numerous docks (115) is most interesting. 
From early in April until early in December one steamer enters 
or leaves the harbor every twenty-two minutes. Duluth ranks 
second only to New York among the ports of the United States. 
The coal docks have the most modern electric machinery and at 
some of them 10,000 tons of coal can be unloaded in ten hours. 
The loading of grain and iron ore is much quicker work, for it 
is done by gravity. The grain or iron ore is shot down thru 
chut( s from the dock to the steamer below. In this way a 10,000 
ton steamer can be loaded in an hour and a half. 



In 1915, Duhitirs $20,000,000 Steel Plant will be working 
and then mneli of the iron ore Avhich is mined in Minnesota, in- 
stead of being sent to the East will stay in Dnhith. 

One of the many wonderful sights of Duluth is the Aerial 
Bridge, which spans the entrance to the harbor. This is a 
gigantic steel arch with a suspended car-ferry. There is only 
one other of the kind in the world. 

No visitor to Duluth should miss the boulevard drive. This 
drive is about 500 feet above the lake and follows an old beach 
line, for Lake Superior once was higher than it now is. Spread 
out before the eye are the city with its busy streets aiid buildings, 
the lake shining in the sun. and the bay with all its shipping. 

Iron Mines. 

When the early Frenchmen explored Minnesota, eager to 
get rich on its furs, they little dreamed of the great wealth 
which lay hidden in the ground. In fact it was not until recent 
times that the iron mines of the state have become known. (Ver- 
milion Range opened in 1884.) Now Minnesota ranks first 
among the iron producing countries of the world. 

Let us make a visit to the largest iron mine in the world. 
This is at Hibbing, northwest of Duluth. As we approach in the 
train from Duluth, we pass mine after mine, for now we are on 
the famous Mesabi Range, the greatest treasure house of ]\Iinne- 
sota's iron. Towns are close together, for all the people who 
do business with the mines must have homes. As we pass one 
toAvn, we are told that the land upon which it was first built 
was discovered to be over valuable iron ore. On account of this, 
the whole city was moved one mile. (Eveleth.) 

When we reach Hibbing a short walk from the electric rail- 
road brings us to the Hull-Rust Mine, the largest iron mine in 
the world. Spread before our eyes is what looks like a great 
valley, two miles in length and from one quarter to one-half a 
mile in width. This is the hole that has been made by the re- 
moval of millions of tons of iron ore and earth, for before the 



iron could be mined a thick layer of sand had to be removed. 
(35 to 155 feet thick.) The removal of the sand is called "strip- 
ping" the mine and it is an expensive process. 

Here we notice little round houses with pointed roofs, re- 
sembling those seen in the cities for the use of the police in hold- 
ing a prisoner, altho these are larger. We are told that these 
are safety houses, to be used by the men when blasting is going 
on. They are made of one-fourth inch steel and are very strong. 

We watch the great steam shovel dropping maybe five tons 
into the open ore ears at one swing. The sides of the mine rise 
in terraces. These present to our view brilliant coloring, rang- 
ing from red thru the purple shades to black. 

Near the mine the ore is tested to find out just what it con- 
tains. We learn that a high grade of ore comes from the Hull- 
Rust Mine. Long trains of ore cars carry the iron ore to Duluth, 
where it is loaded into steamers and carried East on the Great 
Lakes to be made into steel. 

Before we leave the Mesabi Range we may go deep into the 
earth, into an underground mine. We think it fun to climb down 
ladder after ladder and to see the miners with their lamps on 
their hats, but it is a hard life far away from the sunlight. 
Fortunately for the miners most of the mines of Minnesota are 
open, like the Hull-Rust which we visited in Hibbing. 

Outline for Lesson on Mines. 

Minnesota's rank in producing iron. 
Largest iron mine. 

On what range. 

In what town. 

Length and width. 

Stripping. 

Safety houses. 

Made of what. 
Use. 

Ore cars. 



How filled. 
Coloring of mine. 
Testing of ore. 

Shipping. 
Underground iron mines. 

Trip Down the Mississippi From St. Paul. 

Taking a steamboat at St. Paul for a trij) down the river, 
call the attention of the children again to the white sandstone 
cliflfs from which the Indians named the place. Also, observe 
the bottom land built by the river. Point out the Indian Mounds. 
After a few hours we reach the place where AVisconsin touches 
Minnesota and here the St. Croix joins the Mississippi. 

Red Wing. 

(ioing on we come to Red Wing. Before we reach the city 
we see a high hill, which was a landmark for the early settlers, 
who called it a mountain. The city was named for an Indian chief. 
The leading product of the city is pottery made from the clay 
which is found here. The Red Wing factory is one of the largest 
of the kind in the United States. Perhaps some large jars will 
be loaded on to our boat. These jars have to be baked in great 
kilns or ovens, something as bricks are baked in St. Paul. 

Lake Pepin. 

Soon after leaving Red Wing the river broadens out into a 
beautiful lake from two to three miles wide. On both sides of 
the lake are high bluffs, thickly wooded. There are caves along 
the bluffs where in early days, bears used to spend the winter. 

Father Hennepin called Lake Pepin the "Lake of Tears" be- 
cause when he went thru the lake the Indians wailed and 
mourned so much over friends slain in battle. 

McMurry's Pioneer History Stories, p. 72. 

Maiden Rock. 

On the Wisconsin side stands Maiden Rock about which the 



following' legend is told. Near here once lived a beautiful In- 
dian maiden named Winona (Weenonah). She loved a young 
hunter, but when he asked her father if he could marry her, he 
was rejected. A v\'arrior who had collected mam^ scalps on the 
war path also wished to marry her and the maiden's parents 
wished her to become his wife. Winona could not forget her 
lover, altho he had been forced to leave her. She would not con- 
sent to marry the warrior and even the threats of her parents 
would not move her. One day, the band came to Lake Pepin to 
fish or hunt. While the party were feasting, AVinona climbed 
the lofty bluff and then told the people below, how sad and lone- 
ly she had been since the young hunter had left her. Then 
chanting' a wild death-song, before the swiftest runner could 
reach the height, she dashed herself down, and was killed. In 
the early days the Indians feared to pass the spot. 

Xeill's History, p. 93. 
Formation of Lake Pepin. 

Just south of Lake Pepin, the Chippewa joins the Missis- 
sippi. This comes from higher land in Wisconsin and is very 
swift, so it carries a great deal of mud. When it joins the Mis- 
sissippi, it drops much of this mud because the Mississippi is a 
much slower river. This mud makes a dam which causes the 
Mississippi to spread out into the lake thru which our boat has 
just passed. 

Wabasha. 

Opposite the mouth of the Chippewa we see the city of 
Wabasha. Here there is a bridge of boats across the river wdth 
a draw thru which our steamboat passes. Wabasha is built on 
the flood plain of the Mississippi and bluffs 400 to 500 feet high 
separate it from the nearby prairies. It is the center of the 
Lake Pepin pearl fisheries. Pearls are sometimes found in clam 
shells and even if the shells contain no pearls, they are valuable 
for making- pearl buttons. 



McMurry's Type Studies — The Upper Mississippi. 
Minnesota Supplement to Dodge Geography. 

Winona. 

Our next stop is at Winona. Near here we see the bald 
bluff, called Sugar Loaf Mountain, which was long a landmark 
for river men. The city is built on an island in the flood plain 
of the Mississippi. The great river changes its channel on this 
flood plain and jetties have been built near Winona to deepen 
the current. They appear as narrow ridges of stone built out 
into the stream here and there to hold the current in a narrow 
channel. 

Winona is the fourth city of the state in size and besides 
being a railroad center, boots and shoes and flour are manufac- 
tured here. 

The view on the river near Winona is very grand. The 
bluffs appear almost as mountains. Rocks which look like castles 
stand out among the thick woods, so that we can imagine our- 
selves on the Rhine in Germany. 

As we go on to the south we leave Minnesota. We have 
now reached our southern boundary where ^Minnesota touches 
the state of Iowa. 

McMurry's Type Studies— The Upper Mississippi 



AN AMPLIFIED OUTLINE FOR THE STUDY OF MINNE- 
SOTA IN THE SIXTH GRADE. 



Bibliography. 

Minnesota Supplement to Dodge Geography — Lehnerts and 

Hall. 
Minnesota Supplement to Tarr-McMurry Geography — Den- 

feld. 
History of Minnesota- — W. W. Folwell. 
Geography and Geology of Minnesota — C. W. Hall. 
History of INIinnesota- — E. D. Neill. 
St. Panl and Vicinity — H. A. Castle. 
Type Studies— C. A. McMurry. 
Minnesota Historical Society Collections Vol. VII. 

Minnesota. 

Name — Indian word meaning "Sky- tinted water." 
Called the "Gopher State." 
Motto— The Star of the North. 

Location, 

Emphasize its central position in North America. 
East and West. 
North and South. 

Between Arctic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. 
Between Equator and North Pole. (St. Paul 45° 
N. lat.) 

Compare latitude on North with that of other states on 
northern boundary. 

Mention part north of 49th parallel, the most northern part 
of the United States. At the Lake of the Woods the boundary 
line is carried some 30 miles to the North and West from the mouth 
of Kainy Eiver and then due South to the 49th parallel. A tract 
of land is included of about 150 square miles. Some Canadians 



think that this tract should belong to Canada. The history of 
the establishing of this boundary line is interesting. After the 
Kevolution, the Treaty of Paris set the line thru the Lake of the 
Woods to the Northwest corner of the lake, then due west to the 
Mississippi River. Later this was of course found impossible 
and after much negotiation extending over many years, the 
Webster-Ashburton Treaty, signed on Aug. 9, 1842, settled the 
question of the northern boundary. This quotation from the 
Webster-Ashburton Treaty is of interest, "The commissioners 
traced the line to the most Northwest point of the Lake of the 
Woods, * * * thence, according to existing treaties, due 
South to its intersection Avith the 49tli parallel of North latitude 
and along that parallel to the Rocky Mountains." 

Minnesota Historical Society Collections — Alfred J. Hill. 
Vol. VII. Appendix. 

Size. 

Eank among the states. (Thirteenth. If border Avaters in- 
cluding part of Lake Superior are included, it ranks tenth.) 

Compare with Great Britain. (Same size as England and 
Scotland.) 

L^se scale to find approximately- 
Greatest length (408 miles). 
Greatest width (357 miles). 
Narrowest part (178 miles V 

Surface and Drainage. 

General effect of glaciation. (Hills lowered and valleys 
filled. General surface made more level. Soils deepened, diver- 
sified, and enriahed. Rivers diverted, forming falls and rapids. 
Moraines. Many lakes.) 

Altitude. 

Average elevation for Minnesota. (1,250 ft.) 
Compare with average for U. S. (2,500 ft.) 
Highest part. (2.230 ft. in Northeast part.) 



Lowest part. (602 ft. Shore of Lake Superior.) 
Highest and lowest parts only 50 miles apart. 

Chief Divide. 

Where. (Li northern part of state.) 

Height. (Not an appreciable ridge. Unnamed.) 

Sends water in three directions. 

1. To Gulf of Mexico. 

2. To Lake Superior. 

3. To Hudson Bay. 

Three Great River Systems. 

1. Mississippi. 

Rises where. Explain name — Itasca. (So often thought 
an Lidian name. Liitin, "Yeritas Caput." A mission- 
ary in exploring party was asked for the Latin for 
"true source." All he could remember was that 
' ' Veritas ' ' meant truth and ' ' caput ' ' meant head. Fol- 
well's History of Minnesota, p. 76.) 

2. St. Lawrence. 

Often said to start in St. Louis River. 

3. Nelson System. 

Red River of the North. 

Lakes and rivers on northern boundary. 

Rainy Lake and Rainy River, Lake of the Woods. 

Effect of Glaciation on Drainage. 

Rivers had to find new courses. 

Example : The Mississippi above Fort Snelling. 
Caused numerous falls. 
Great waterpower developed. 

The 10,000 lakes of Minnesota. 

(8,000 lakes more than one mile in diameter.) 
Mostly in basins made by drift deposits. 



In rock basins. 

Lakes formed by damming of rivers. 
Likely to become recreation spots for entire Northwest. 
Compare with Maine in this respect. 

Largest lake within state — Red Lake. 

Largest in U. S. except Lake Michigan. 

Mention also 
Leech Lake. 

Leech Lake is one of several lakes in the upper Mississippi 
which has been dammed by the government so as to form a 
reservoir for the purpose of deepening the river for navigation, 
of lessening danger of floods, and of increasing waterpower at 
low-water period. These dams can deepen the river at St. Paul 
one to two feet for three months. 

jNIille Lacs. 
Lake Pepin. 

Formed by damming of Mississippi by silt brought 
down by Chippewa River. 
Lakes furnish — 
Fish. 
Ice. 

Climate. 

Continental. 

In path of prevailing westerly wind. 
Dryness of air. Healthfulness. 

Climatic effect of Lake Superior and lakes on northern 
boundary. 

Winters not so cold. 

Summers not so hot. 

Rainfall. 

Least in Northwest corner. Most in Southeast. 
Average rainfall for state — 26.9 inches. 
Everywhere sufficient for farming. 

(20 inches necessary for farming.) 



History. 

Part of New France. 

French fur traders and missionaries. 

French names which have remained. 

Diiluth (built fort on north shore of Lake Superior.) 
Hennepin (discovered St. Anthony Falls.) 

Received by Great Britain from France. (1763.) 

Carver sent by Great Britain to explore and report. 
Carver's Cave near St. Paul. 

(Held councils with Indians here.) 

Change from English to United States control. 
Zebulon Pike. 

Twenty years after Revolution found English flag. 

Selected site for fort. 

At junction of Mississippi and Minnesota 
Rivers. Strategic point. 

Fort Snelling established. 
Troops arrive in 1819. 
Buildings begun in 1820. 

Saw-mill at "the Falls"— 1821. 
First saw-mill in Minnesota. 
First flour-mill established— 1823. 

Fort named St. Anthony, afterward changed to Fort 
Snelling in honor of first commandant. 

Territory organized — 1849. 
Admitted as a state — 185S. 

Industries. 

In colonial times, fur brought people to Minnesota. In ter- 
ritorial times, lumber. In 1856, J. J. Hill says, Minnesota was 
noted for lumber, cranberries, and furs. Treaties with Sioux 
Indians brought land under control of United States. Farming 
in Southern ]Minnesota begun. The third wave of immigration 



was caused by wheat. First shipment made in 1857, the year 
before Minnesota became a state. 

Agriculture and Dairying. 

A little more than one-half of area of state devoted to 
agriculture. Agriculture in prairies of Southern 
Minnesota from early times. Followed lumbering in 
Central and Northern Minnesota where land was fit. 
Much land stony and unfit for agriculture. Mention 
value of replanting forests on waste land. 

Wheat (St. Nicholas, October, 1893). 

First crop in Southern Minnesota. Then corn. 
Abundant grass caused dairying to displace 
corn raising. 

Red River Valley called "Bread Basket" of 
world. Soil improved by glacier. Canada 
robbed of soil and Minnesota benefited. Rich 
sediments deposited in bed of Lake Agassiz. 
Dairying and stock raising now somewhat 
displacing wheat. Soil less productive. 

Mention reclaiming of swamp land in northern 
part of state. Near Thief River Falls much 
work of this kind has been done. Here, the 
material taken from drainage ditches is used 
in road making. 

Crops. 

Wheat, oats, corn, barley, rye, Hax, clover, 
grasses. 

Potatoes and other root crops, including sugar 
beet. 

Melons, apples, grapes. (Toward South.) 

Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blue- 
berries. On account of cooler climate in 
Northeast Minnesota, berries are supplied to 
market after they are gone in warmer places. 



Quarrying. 

How glacier helped in stripping quarries. 
Granite. 

Tells of volcanic activity. 
Near St. Cloud and Ortonville. 

Sandstone. 

Laid doAvn as sandy shore. 
Near Duluth. 

Slate. 

Laid down as mud. (Beyond sand.) 
Near Duluth. 

Limestone. 

Shells of animals. 

In neighborhood of Minneapolis and St. Paul. 

Mining. 

^linnesota is the leading iron state. Locate three iron 
ranges. 

A^ermilion. (Opened in 1884.) 
Mesabi. (Opened in 1892.) 

Cuyuna. (Near Brainerd. Quite recent. First 
shipment made in 1911.) 

Ore of high grade. 

lender ground and open-pit mining. 
Advantages of latter. 

Safer. Better for miners. 

In the end, no more expensive. 
Hydraulic stripping. 

Take Hull-Rust mine as type study. 

Range — Mesabi. 
Town — Hibbing. 
Size of mine. 

Length— Two miles. 

Width — One-quarter mile to one-half mile. 



Area — About 400 acres. 
Largest iron mine in world. 
Output in 1913 (a good year), 3,100,000 tons. 
Stripping. 

35 feet to 155 feet. Cost several millions. 
Began work in 1905. 

Blasting ore. 

Safety houses, made of one-quarter inch sheet steel. 
Used by men when blasting is going on. 

Ore cars. 

Describe. 

How filled. (By enormous steam shovels. 
Sometimes lifting five tons at one time.) 

General appearance of mine. 

Terraces and brilliant coloring of ore. 
Similarity to Grand Canyon of Colorado. 

Laboratories. 

Purpose. (Determining exact composition of ore.) 
Shipping of ore. 

By rail to Dnluth. 

To Cleveland, Pittsburgh, etc., by Great Lakes. 

(On account of cheap lake transportation and improved ma- 
■chinery for loading and unloading, ore can be delivered in Pitts- 
burgh at lower rates than Pennsylvania mines can deliver it.) 

Manufacturing. 

Water power. Very abundant iu state. 
Flour Milling. 

Chief manufacturing of state. 
Minneapolis leads world. 
Lumbering. 

In early times. 

On lower Mississippi and St. Croix. 



Brought men to Minnesota, especially from 
]Maine, who brought their lumbering 
methods with them. 

Decline. Why. 

In Virginia, Cloquet, and Bemidji, now. 

(Review lumbering and saw-mills as studied in lower grades. 
Pupils give as special topics. 

Carpenter's North America, pp. 18-1-189. 

St. Nicholas — November, 1897. 

Type Studies — Tarr and McMurry, p. 198.) 

Paper Pulp. 

International Falls — Largest pulp mill. 
Kind of wood used- — spruce. 
Outline process briefly. 

Cutting in short lengths. 

Stripping of bark. 

Grinding. 

Pressing and rolling. 

Other substances added. 

Why. (To make firmer texture.) 
Use. 

Cheap paper — Newspaper, etc. 

Butter and Cheese. 

Constantly increasing quantity. 

Why. (As soil becomes less productive, stock raising 
and dairying are more lucrative than farming.) 

(Mention home industries which will show great variety 
and constantly increasing scope of Minnesota's manufacturing. 
Meat Packing Plant, Boot and Shoe Factory, Clothing Factory, 
Book Publishing House, Cracker, etc., Factory, Canning Factory, 
Brick Yards, Woolen Mills, etc.) 

Commerce. 

On river in early times. (In 1823, first steamboat came 
up to Fort Snelling. In 1858, climax of steamboating 



on river, 1,068 steamboats came to St. Paul.) De- 
crease. (Improvement of channel to St. Louis and 
opening of Panama Canal likely to cause increase.) 

Railroads. 

Level surface and also absence of barriers made 

construction easy. 
First in 1862. 

St. Paul and Minneapolis great railroad cen- 
ters. Central position in continent, favor- 
able. Cheap lake transportation to and from 
large markets farther East. Great Lakes 
and St. Lawrence form chief inland water- 
way of world. 

Chief articles carried — Iron, wheat, coal. 



Cities. 



The Twin Cities. 

Reason for location. 

St. Paul — ^Head of navigation. Natural trading 
post. ]\Iinneapolis — Waterpower. 

Minneapolis. 

Location and size. 

Why it has outgrown St. Paul. 
St. Anthony Falls. 

Caused by glacier. 
Movement from Fort Snelling. 
How further movement has been prevent- 
ed. Why. Hall's Geography and Geol- 
ogy of Minnesota, pp. 129-133. 
Mention discovery by Father Hennepin. 
Lumber. 

First product of mills. 

Once greatest lumber center of world. 

Reason for decline. 



Flour. 

Rank of Minneapolis. 

Nearness to great wheat fields of Red River Valley. 
Other Manufactures. 

Blankets, Farm Machinery, Linseed Oil. 
Scenic Beauty. 

Lakes. 

Minnehaha Falls. 
Seat of University of Minnesota. 

At time capital ^Yas placed at St. Paul, the Univer- 
sity was placed in ^linneapolis, and the State 
Prison in Stillwater. 



St. Paul. 



Location and size. 
Capital. 

Capitol building one of the most beautiful in U. S. 
^lanufacturing. 

Largest meat packing plant in XorthAvest at South 

St. Paul. 
Boots and Shoes. 

Ranks first in U. S. 
Furs. 

One of greatest centers in U. S. 
From time of early fur traders and Hudson 
Bay Company always important. 
Crackers, Canned Goods, Etc. 

Sanitary Food Co. 
Law Books. 

Leads world. 
Brick Yards — West Side. 

Among most valuable in state. 
Scenic Beauty. 

Bluffs. Explain origin. 
River Drives. Lakes. 



Duluth. 

Pavorahle location on Lake Superior. 

Steamships and railroads make it a great distributing 
point. 

Wonderful docks. 

Second only to New York (in TT. S.) in amount of ton- 
nage. 

Size. 

Third city in state. 

Likely to become one of greatest commercial 
centers of Avorld on account of — 
Favorable location. 

Nearness to iron mines, wheat fields, and 
lumber centers. 

Aerial Bridge. 

Only one of its kind in America. 

$20,000,000 Steel Plant. (To be completed in 1915.) 

It is thought that this will make Duluth a rival 

of Pittsburgh. Coal for steel plant will be 

brought back from East in ore boats which 

might otherwise return empty. 

Limestone — For flux. 

Abundant in Minnesota. 

Probably from near Stillwater. 
Scenic Beauty. 

Bluff drive on old beach line, nearly 500 feet 
above Lake Superior. 

Winona. 

Location and size. (Fourth in state.) 
Bluffs. Landmark to river men in early times. 
Legend of Maiden Bock. 

Neill's History of Minnesota, p. 93. 

Railroads. 

Trade center of Southern Minnesota. 



Much Manufacturing. 
Boots and shoes. 
•Flour. 

Normal School. 

Oldest and one of the largest in Minnesota. 

Draw Map of Minnesota. 

Name adjoining states of U. S. and provinces of Canada. 

Put in and name : 
Lake Itasca. 
IMississippi River. 
Leech Lake. 
Lake Pepin. 
Big Stone Lake. 
Minnesota River. 
St. Croix River, 
.^lille Lacs and outlet. 
JSt. Louis River. 
iLake Superior. 
Rainy Lake. 
Rainy River. 
Lake of the Woods. 
Lake Traverse and outlet. 
Red River of North. 
Red Lake and outlet. 
St Paul — capital. 
Minneapolis — largest city. 
Duluth — second port of U. S. 
Winona — Normal School. 
Stillwater — State Prison. 
St. Cloud — Granite. 
Virginia. Cloquet, Bemidji — Lumber. 
International Falls — Paper pulp. 
Hibbing and Eveleth — Iron (Mesabi Range). 

Make production map of Minnesota. 



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